Plymouth Company. Photo: author named on the file page, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wpdms_king_james_grants.png)
Plymouth Company. Photo: author named on the file page, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wpdms_king_james_grants.png)
Sir Ferdinando Gorges was an English soldier, royalist, and promoter of colonization who helped organize early English ventures in New England. He was a founder of the Council for New England, a major proprietor of the Province of Maine, and an author of accounts describing England’s colonial projects, although he never visited North America.
Background
Ferdinando Gorges was born in the mid-1560s, probably at Wraxall in Somerset, into a prominent English family with longstanding landholdings in the county. His father was Edward Gorges of Wraxall and his mother was Cecily Lygon. The family's connections placed Gorges within the landed and courtly society that supplied officers, administrators, and colonial promoters for the Tudor and early Stuart states.
He received what contemporary sources describe as a good education and entered military service while still young. His later life remained connected with the southwest of England, especially Plymouth and Somerset, even as his political and colonial interests extended across the Atlantic world.
Education
Gorges received a good education. His preparation led into a military and administrative career rather than a documented university course.
His education took place in the late Tudor period, when members of the English landed elite commonly combined classical instruction, household training, and preparation for service to the Crown. The absence of a named institution does not establish a particular school or university.
Career
Gorges began his public career as a soldier and served in the Low Countries against Spain and in France in support of Henry IV's struggle for the French throne. He was knighted in 1591 after military service in France. During the 1590s he also served with English forces in expeditions connected with the Spanish conflict, the Azores, and Ireland.
In 1596 Elizabeth I appointed him captain and keeper of the fort at Plymouth and captain of St Nicholas Island. The Plymouth command placed him within the coastal defense system created to protect western England from Spanish attack. He lost the post after his involvement in the Earl of Essex's rebellion but regained it after James I came to the throne in 1603. He continued as governor of Plymouth's forts and island until 1629.
Gorges became interested in North American colonization after meeting George Weymouth in 1605. Weymouth had returned from the New England coast with five Native Americans, three of whom Gorges kept in his household in order to learn about the region. Gorges promoted the Virginia Company in 1606 and supported the expedition that established the Popham colony at the mouth of the Kennebec River in 1607.
In 1620 he helped secure the charter of the Council for New England, a proprietary corporation granted authority over the region between the fortieth and forty-eighth parallels. The council distributed land to promoters and settlers rather than creating a single centrally administered colony. One of its grants supported the Pilgrims at Cape Cod, while Gorges himself received a large tract jointly with John Mason in 1622.
Gorges attempted to establish a proprietary settlement through his son Robert, who received a grant northeast of Massachusetts Bay and sailed to New England in 1623. Robert returned to England the following year, and the settlement was abandoned. Gorges later opposed the Massachusetts Bay Company because its Puritan religious character, corporate structure, and overlapping land claims conflicted with his vision of aristocratic proprietorship under royal authority.
After the Council for New England's charter was surrendered, Gorges was appointed governor-general of New England and was instructed to present the Crown's orders to Massachusetts. The mission failed when his ship broke apart at launch and John Mason, who was to serve as his deputy, died. In 1639 Gorges obtained royal confirmation of his grant for the Province of Maine. Agents established a provincial government, but the English Civil War and the decline of royal power prevented him from realizing his plan for a large proprietary colony. He died in 1647, and the family's claims were eventually displaced by Massachusetts.
Gorges promoted English exploration, trade, and settlement in New England from the early seventeenth century and helped organize the 1607 Popham colony at the mouth of the Kennebec River.
He helped secure the 1620 charter of the Council for New England, a proprietary corporation granted authority over a large section of the North American coast between the fortieth and forty-eighth parallels.
His efforts to obtain and defend a royal grant for the Province of Maine established the legal foundation for the Gorges family's later proprietary claims, although his intended colonial government was not fully realized.
Works
historical narrative
A Briefe Relation of the Discovery and Plantation of New England
(A colonial account associated with Gorges's promotion of ...)
(A posthumously published account attributed to Gorges des...)
1659
Religion
Gorges was an Anglican and a committed defender of the established Church of England. Anglicanism, consolidated during the English Reformation, recognized the monarch as supreme governor of the church while retaining episcopal organization, a distinct liturgy, and sacramental traditions.
His religious outlook was closely connected with his opposition to the Puritan direction of Massachusetts Bay. Gorges favored colonies governed through royal authority and proprietary institutions rather than through the congregational and self-governing model associated with the New England Puritans.
Politics
Gorges was a royalist who supported the authority of the English monarchy and resisted political and religious arrangements that weakened royal control. His outlook developed after his involvement in the Earl of Essex's rebellion, after which he testified against Essex and remained aligned with the Crown.
In colonial affairs, Gorges favored direct royal sanction and aristocratic proprietorship. He opposed the Puritan political and religious character of Massachusetts Bay and sought to bring the colony under the authority of the Council for New England. His royalism also shaped his position during the English Civil War, when the defeat of the monarchy reduced the prospects for his proprietary plans in Maine.
Views
Gorges believed that colonization should be authorized and supervised by the Crown and organized through proprietary grants to members of the English elite. His plans assumed that English political, social, and economic institutions could be transferred to North America through manorial and hierarchical arrangements.
His colonial writings presented English expansion as a matter of royal right and national policy. They also emphasized providential interpretations of colonial enterprise and defended the legal claims of English monarchs against competing European powers.
Membership
Gorges belonged to the Council for New England, the proprietary corporation created to organize English colonization across much of the northeastern coast of North America. His participation was connected with the council's distribution of land, sponsorship of settlements, and attempts to impose a proprietary framework on New England.
Founder and leading promoter of the council's proprietary colonization program.
Council for New England
,
England
1620 - 1635
Personality
Gorges's documented political conduct presents him as a determined royalist and a persistent advocate of proprietary colonization. His repeated petitions, charter negotiations, and attempts to challenge Massachusetts Bay show sustained commitment to centralized authority and aristocratic control of colonial land.
Quotes from others about the person
Gorges was later described as the “father of English colonisation in America” because of his sustained promotion of English ventures in New England. The designation refers to his role as organizer, promoter, and proprietor; he never personally visited North America.
Connections
Gorges was the son of Edward Gorges of Wraxall and Cecily Lygon. He married Ann Bell in 1589, Mary Fulford in 1621, Elizabeth Gorges in 1627, and Elizabeth Gorges, Lady Smyth, in 1629.
His sons John and Robert were involved in the succession and administration of his colonial interests. Robert Gorges served as the leader of the attempted proprietary settlement northeast of Massachusetts Bay in 1623, while John inherited the family's territorial claims after his father's death.
Father:
Edward Gorges of Wraxall
He was a member of the Gorges family of Wraxall in Somerset.
Mother:
Cicely Lygon
She was the daughter of William Lygon of Madresfield, Worcestershire.
Wife:
Ann Bell
Gorges married her at St Margaret's, Westminster, in 1589.
Wife:
Mary Fulford
Gorges married her in 1621.
Wife:
Elizabeth Gorges
Gorges married her at Ladock in Cornwall in 1627.
Wife:
Elizabeth Gorges, Lady Smyth
Gorges married her at Wraxall in 1629.
Son:
John Gorges
He inherited his father's colonial claims.
Son:
Robert Gorges
He led the attempted proprietary settlement northeast of Massachusetts Bay in 1623.
Sir Ferdinando Gorges
A biographical and documentary work concerning Gorges's military career and role in English colonization.
Sir Ferdinando Gorges
A reference biography describing Gorges's military career, promotion of New England colonization, role in founding the Council for New England, and proprietorship of Maine.
2026
Gorges, Ferdinando
A biographical account documenting Gorges's family background, military service, marriages, colonial activities, writings, and descendants.
1890
Sir Ferdinando Gorges and His Province of Maine
A documentary edition edited by James Phinney Baxter containing a memoir of Gorges and primary materials concerning his colonial projects and Province of Maine.
